AR/VR Disaster Relief Challenge

It is 2025. An earthquake followed by a tsunami has hit an island in the South Pacific and the U.S. Navy needs you to help recover from a global disaster that has put millions of survivors in jeopardy.

In this time of great turmoil and human suffering relief agencies, governments, and military forces are going to need to form hasty teams that quickly build trust in order to jointly coordinate medical, food, and security relief for the disaster victims and bolster the local government’s ability to provide support long-term. Are there advantages to immersive environments that facilitate building trust and planning complex endeavors? There will also be numerous autonomous vehicles surveying the damage, carrying supplies and supporting the relief program. How can the humans trust that the autonomous machines are fulfilling their support role without making the situation more chaotic?

You can help in one of two ways. Using HTC Vive, Microsoft Hololens and/or Apple AR Kit, you can design an immersive command and control interface for a robotic submarine that will be conducting survey missions in the wake of the disaster. Or, you can design an immersive planning environment that allows teams to develop a shared vision of the disaster area and collaboratively plan humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) effort.